Sunday, September 23, 2007

When Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice announced "The Beautiful Fig" as the theme for this month's Sugar High Friday, I really wanted to participate in this month's SHF and support my fellow Daring Baker Ivonne. Sugar High Friday, the brainchild of Domestic Goddess Jennifer, is the food blogosphere's travelling sweet tooth event. Every month a new host picks a theme ingredient and anyone can create something sweet incorporating the theme.

Fresh black mission figs seem to say "autumn" to me and are readily available this time of year. It almost seemed like a shame to bake the wonderfully sweet fresh figs, so I made sure to buy extra figs for snacking too! When combined with walnuts, this fig loaf turned out to be a perfect autumnal treat.

Stir butter and both sugars until combined. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Mix in figs and walnuts.

Pour batter into the 8x4 inch loaf pan (or divide batter evenly among the three mini loaf pans). Bake at 325F until cake tester comes out clean (a few dry crumbs are okay but it shouldn't be wet), approximately 75 minutes for the 8x4 inch loaf (or 30-40 minutes for the three mini loaves). Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

18 comments:

figs and walnuts - what an awesome combination! When we were in San Fran during the last week of September a couple of years ago, we saw a sea of figs that was quite a spectacle. The hubby, being crazy about figs, did not know what to do. He was like a kid in a candy factory.

Figs were in season not too long ago here in Peru. I look at them longingly, wondering what I should do with them. After seeing your recipe, I will be sure to buy and try them next time. This cake looks delicious!

The alpine strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is a cousin of the wild strawberry. It's sometimes simply referred to as alpineberry. I love to bake, cook and garden. My blog is a place to share my recipes and other tiny tidbits of my life.